A Technical Seminar

ON
SOL-GEL TECHNIQUE IN
SOLAR SELECTIVE ABSORBER
By

AKSHAY ANIS
(1NC11ME704) 8th Sem

Under The Guidance Of

Mr. DEEPAK C
Assitant Professor
Dept. Of Mech.
NAGARJUNA COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
VENKATAGIRIKOTE, DEVANAHALLI, BENGALURU-562110
2014-15

CONTENTS
Introduction to Solar Selective Absorber
Sol-Gel Method
Sol-Gel Syntheesis Process
Metal Oxide based Selective Absorber

Copper oxide-based absorber

Cobalt oxide-based absorber

Ruthenium oxide

Metal oxides composite blend

Conclusion
References

INTODUCTION TO SOLAR SELECTIVE ABSORBER

Photovoltaic (PV) devices can be used for converting solar radiation to electricity while solar
thermal collectors can convert solar radiation to the heat which powers a steam generator. One
type of solar thermal collector is the atplate solar thermal collector usually used for water or
air heating at low temperatures. The key component of a at plate solar thermal collector is the
solar absorber surface. For such surfaces to absorb most of the incoming solar radiations
without losing much of the thermal energy through re-radiation from heated surface, there is a
need to optimize the optical and structural properties of a surface through the use of a
combination of materials, the modication of the surface, or the synthesis of multilayer solar
absorber materials to achieve the desired wavelength selectivity. Such surfaces are called solar
selective absorber (SSA) surfaces.
Electrochemical deposition, vacuum deposition, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), mechanical
grinding, and solgel methods are some of the methods that have been used to synthesize the
absorber coatings.

SOL-GEL METHOD

The solgel methods are well-known simple, low cost, and environmentally friendly thin
lm fabrication techniques resulting in a uniform chemical thin lm composition. Sol
gel techniques facilitate control of coating parameters such as absorber particle size,
particle size distribution, homogeneity, chemical composition and lm thickness. The
most signicant advantage of solgel over other established coating methods is its ability
to tailor the microstructure of the deposited lm at low temperatures. This paper reviews
the developments in the synthesis of at-plate SSA materials produced by solgel
methods.

SOLGEL SYNTHESIS PROCESS

The regular solgel steps in synthesizing SSA surfaces generally consist of

substrate surface cleaning, sol solution preparation, lm deposition and heat
treatment/calcination. The preparation of a solgel solution involves the use
of inorganic or metal organic compound aqueous organic/alcoholic solvent
with the addition of an acid/base conditioner as a catalyst .

METAL OXIDE BASED SELECTIVE ABSORBER

Metal oxide, either standalone or blended with other compounds, can be simply
synthesized using solgel methods. Generally, the synthesis route is relatively short
and without the requirement for inert conditions in the calcination step.

1. Copper oxide-based absorber

2. Cobalt oxide-based absorber
3. Ruthenium oxide
4. Metal oxides composite blend

1. COPPER OXIDE-BASED ABSORBER

Copper oxide (CuO), which is well-known for having good optical properties as SSA
material, is inexpensive and easy to process using solgel methods. The other principal
oxide of copper, Cu2O, also exhibits good solar absorption, but its absorption is lower
than CuO.
CuO is used as an SSA coating on at-plate collectors. Coating deposition is carried
out by spraying a dilute solution of cupric nitrate onto an aluminum sheet, which
converts the cupric nitrate to black cupric oxide by heating it to above 170 oC

2. COBALT OXIDE-BASED ABSORBER

Besides copper oxide, cobalt oxides (CoO or Co3O4 ) also have good optical properties
as SSAs and are comparatively easy to synthesize. The idea of using cobalt oxide as a
selective absorber material was rst introduced by Gillette.
In terms of sol gel techniques, many researchers are more interested in the synthesis of
cobalt oxide than copper oxide. This is attributed to the fact that cobalt oxide is more
stable at high temperatures than copper oxide.
Cobalt oxide precursors are relatively more expensive than the copper oxide precursors
but this cost is still negligible compared to the substrate cost.

3. RUTHENIUM OXIDE
Ruthenium oxide (RuO2) thin lm on the top of an ASTM grade 2 titanium substrate
produced the characteristics of a SSA. Ruthenium chloride in alcoholic solution was
used as a precursor solution. The deposition was carried out using the dipping and
spraying technique at room temperature before the sample was heat-treated at a
temperature of 450500 OC for 1 h.

4. METAL OXIDES COMPOSITE BLEND

A lm consisting of nickel oxide (NiO) in the pores of alumina (NiOAl 2O3) on an
aluminum substrate also showed the characteristics of a SSA material. NiO lms are
obtained by solgel spray pyrolysis deposition (SPD) using an aqueous solution of nickel
acetate tetrahydrate embedded in a porous structure of Al/Al 2O3. They optimized the
precursors concentrations and compositions, substrate temperatures and annealing
treatments to produce the best SSA.

CONCLUSIONS
Solgel techniques are capable of producing a variety of SSA thin lm materials with
various selectivity and durability characteristics. The benets of such surfaces are
comparative simplicity in production and the potential for good cost-effectiveness.
There are, nonetheless, many technical obstacles that need to be addressed before such
techniques can become fully viable in the context of commercial applications.
Metal oxides and spinel-based absorbers are easy to synthesize using solgel methods
but most of their selectivities are relatively lower than the commercial absorber
surfaces.
Metal particles embedded in matrix-type absorbers are among the better selective
absorbers, but there are still problems associated with the reproducibility of the sol.
The use of highly soluble raw materials and the avoidance of compounds that easily
settle in precursor's preparation is the robust way to solve the reproducibility problem.
In terms of policy implications, solgel solar selective absorber materials can be
promoted in the context of at plate solar collectors as benchmarked with other
selective absorber materials.

THANK YOU